The Gardens on Spring Creek

Gardeners in Colorado may find large green caterpillars with an iconic horn on their plants every summer—these are hornworms! Tobacco hornworms ( Manduca sexta ) feed on common garden crops, often leading to conflict with humans. These very hungry caterpillars are defoliators, damaging plants such as tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, and eggplant. While the caterpillars use crops as a food source, which could be seen as negative, the moths provide a critical step in reproduction for the plants via pollination. Carolina Sphinx Moths ( Manduca sexta ), also called Hummingbird moths, are the adult form of hornworm s. They are known for their unique ability to hover mid-flight. Combined with the use of a special elongated proboscis, these moths are especially important for plant species with long tubular flowers that other pollinators cannot access or pollinate.  The Gardens on Spring Creek Butterfly House wants to highlight the importance of these specialized pollinators in our...

 Welcome to Blooming Blurbs Part Three!  Check out what's currently blooming in The Gardens: Blue Globe Thistle ( Echinops bannaticus 'Taplow Blue') T hese round blue blooms can be found in the Pollinator Garden of the Garden of Eatin.' Though they are quite nice to look at, they are much less nice to the touch, as both their flowers and leaves are spiky. Bees, however, don’t mind this at all and can commonly be seen going from bloom to bloom, collecting nectar and pollen. One advantage of this species is that it will bloom multiple times throughout the summer , usually starting in July and ending in early September. It is commonly mistaken with another blue, spiky, thimble-shaped flower called E ryngium ( s ea h olly) . Echinops are part of the Aster family (Asteraceae), while Eryngiums are a part of the Carrot Family ( Apiaceae ). Here at The Gardens, we have a couple of Eryngiums, including Eryngium planum 'Blaukappe,' located on the south side of t...